Thursday, January 19, 2017

Ever More Russians have Mental Disorders But Fewer Psychiatrists Exist to Help Them

Paul
Goble

Staunton, January 19 – In an article
on the Regnum portal today entitled “Why is Psychiatry Being Destroyed?” Irina
Medvedeva and Tatyana Shishkova are that “Russian society is suffering from an
epidemic of psychological disorders but that ever more often there is no one
would have help them” (regnum.ru/news/polit/2228151.html).

The two educators say on the basis
of their professional experience that both the reason for this situation and
the basis for its solution are to be found in the complicated relationship
between psychiatry, on the one hand, and politics, on the other, a relationship
that is seldom considered in detail.

“Many
will say,” they note, “that in certain political systems, psychiatry is used
for the suppression of dissent,” with those who object to the regime’s policies
confined to “mad houses.”That is “a
correct answer,” Medvedeva and Shishkova say, but it is not a complete
one.There is in fact “something much
more important but not so evident” involved.

Since
the start of perestroika, they say, educational professionals have noted and
complained about what they see as “the destruction of psychiatry … just as is the
case in many other areas under the guide of reform, the striving to correspond
to new approaches and international standards, to improve, to perfect and so
on.”

And
while psychiatry in Russia has been and continues to be in trouble, they say,
the psychological health of the Russian people has declined, with a rising
number of people suffering from complaints like schizophrenia which many assume
are things that remain at a fixed level.

“There
is nothing surprising in this worsening of psychological health” among Russians,
the two educators suggest. “It couldn’t
be otherwise under conditions of such information-cultural aggression” from the
West “and the loosening of morals.”

Between
2004 and 2014, the last year for which complete statistics are available, the
number of Russians who have been classified as invalids because of mental
problems rose by 5.2 percent to a total of 1,055,950 – almost one out of every
one in the country’s population. But there are fewer than one psychiatrist or
psychotherapist for every 10,000 Russians.

Between
2005 and 2014, the number of psycho-neurological dispensaries fell from 173 to
98, both pathetically low numbers for a country as large demographically and
geographically as the Russian Federation.And over the same period, the number of psychiatric hospitals fell from
270 to 210, with the total number of beds in such institutions falling by 14.1
percent.

The
situation among pre-schools both in terms of the share with mental problems and
of the number of professionals available to help them is even worse.And now one in every five young men excused
from military service gains that exemption because of psychological problems,
Medvedeva and Shishkova say.

In
seeking to save money, the government has seriously underestimated the
importance of the work of psychiatrists. It has allowed psychologists who
cannot do as much to flood the market and failed to train and retain
psychiatrists who in contrast can actually help many that psychology alone
cannot. “Even the best psychologist can’t substitute for a psychiatrist.”

But
if the problems in the branch reflect politics, so too does the obvious
solution, the two educators continue. (In fact, they devote most of their long
article to this.)They suggest that the
best way to cure more Russians is to promote traditional Orthodox values
against the onslaught of Western ones.Even if that is successful, however, Russia needs more psychiatrists.